Jim, I'm here every day as I can, sometims a lot . If I have a comment or I can enlighten someone , fine . Many times as in pricing, I stay away from this as values fluctuate wayyyy too much and since I'm on dissability , my ability to go to most shows excedes my tiny bank account . Hey, the days of traveling several states away for a one or two day show for me are completely over for me .

This board at least provides me a way to see whats in the hobby. Many times , fellow members have been kind enough to provide me with pictures of actual pieces as I do models of petrolina . So what do you now refer to me as , a Model petoholic ?

Another site I am active on had a conversation about post count, The poster was bragging about his post count in such a short amount of time. Here is 1 guys comment I Loved the response the Honda site did.It's quality, not quantity that counts.

I've been on so many forums for the past 10 years and have watched as most of them have either hidden post count or made post count rules to keep from it becoming a competition.

Years ago back on honda-tech.com if you posted a new thread (or anywhere in another thread) boasting about your post count it would immediately be reset to zero, it was so great to see someone post a thread saying "MY 1000th POST!" and you could click in there and see "0" under his name, followed by his #1 post saying "What happened?" haha

You guys have a great forum here, and I'm glad I finally joined. Been stopping by for years, but just now bought my first pump, and restoring it, so I figured it would be helpfull to join the discussion.

Ya know... I really have to re-think my membership in this OldGas group. I agreed a year ago that posting the number of member posts to the left should be dropped, as way too many folks used it as a self proclaimed badge of "king of the forum". Someone asked above "who got tarred and feathered - thought you all were just a bunch of fun-loving guys". Well, for the umteenth time, I feel like I just got tarred and feathered (again) in the General Questions forum for asking a simple straight forward question. So many of the posts I (and others) place are answered with put downs, ridicule, "whats-wrong-with-yous" and in general made to feel like some ignorant newbie collector. Quite frankly I'm tired of it and wonder what happened to good old fashioned pleasantness, helpfulness, and positive encouragement. People who start their replies with "No offence but you new collectors do realize" and then go on to try to convince others that they're top expert in the Petroliana collecting hobby just smacks to me of school yard bully syndrome. It really is too bad that some just canít help but put everyone else down in a vain attempt to boost their own lousy self esteem. Again, I have to wonder is there anyone in this entire forum who understands courteousness and simple manners? Someone who is in it just for nothing more than having fun and wanting to help others?Jim, I do applaud you as the moderator, but don't envy you as the one who has to police the thing. Nuff said... I'm signing off.

No question about it, when someone starts their comments with "No offense, but..." or "Don't take this the wrong way, but..." they should know that the next thing they say is probably insulting to someone. I think most members here are considerate and respectful of others, but a few are not. The moderators try to catch gross violations of civility and edit or delete them. When a member clicks on the "Notify" button in a post, we look at it especially close.

Sad to say, but online manners are often not what they should be. Some folks think they can type in a disrespectful way online that could get them punched in a face-to-face conversation. A good example is the discussion of politics. We haven't allowed that here for years, but on other forums and news media, it seems insults are the normal way of expressing a political opinion.

Sorry you felt like you were bullied. A few members do come off way too harsh with too little thought of how their words could hurt. When you see that kind of thing, click on the "Notify" button in that post and tell the moderators how you feel about it.

I truly am sorry, that I hurt your feelings..... I was hoping to help you gain a little knowledge.... I may have done it clumsily but I wasn't trying to ridicule or embarrass anyone....

As to my knowledge, in June of this year I will have 50 years in this hobby.... So just maybe I do have a little more knowledge than some? Including you?

As to "courteousness and simple manners", hard to believe you would "call me out" and then write as disrespectful post as this one.. But, I guess for you being courteous and respectful is a one-way street? You deserve them, but don't have to give them in return?